"This Yan Siqi is quite thoughtful, but considering that Yang Wenyue and the other four have already arrived, and with Lu Jianxing and Jin Xuan supervising him, he can't cause any trouble..."

On March 25, when Zhu Youjian received two letters from Yingzhou that were urgently sent from Busan, North Korea to the capital, he immediately sneered.

The two letters were written by Jin Xuan and Yan Siqi respectively. Although the contents are similar, we can see from the handwriting and the language that Yan Siqi showed signs of cheating and showing off his cleverness.

Zhu Youjian saw through his cleverness at a glance.

A straight person like Jin Xuan is suitable for supervision, and he is no match for Yan Siqi who is so naughty.

Fortunately, Zhu Youjian only needs him to supervise and manage Yingzhou. As for playing tricks, Lu Jianxing, Yang Wenyue, and Wu Aheng are there to accompany Yan Siqi.

Putting the letter aside, Zhu Youjian stood up from his seat in the study. Sitting on the left and right in front of him were Cao Huachun and Wang Chengen who were handling the government affairs of the Royal Horse Supervisor, and Lu Wenzhao of the Jinyi Guard, as well as those who were doing homework.

Two carrot heads.

"Dingguo, Ran'er, you go out for a walk first, relax, balance work and rest, and come back to do your homework in half an hour."

Zhu Youjian spoke to Li Dingguo and Zhu Ciran who were doing their homework. Upon hearing this, Zhu Ciran's originally bitter face suddenly turned into a smile, while Li Dingguo knew that his highness wanted to talk about business, so he got up and walked out.

When Zhu Ciran saw Li Dingguo leaving, he followed him and jumped up and down.

"well……"

Looking at Zhu Ciran's back, Zhu Youjian felt that his eldest nephew didn't seem very serious either.

He thought about his brother who loved carpentry, his father who loved taking drugs, his imperial grandfather who loved staying at home, his great-grandfather who loved cultivating immortals, and...

In short, when he thinks about what his ancestors did, Zhu Youjian always feels that President Zhu Ciran is crooked.

Although he had been quite honest and responsible during the past few months while he was learning under him, except for being a little naughty, Zhu Youjian still felt uneasy.

As if seeing his uneasiness, Cao Huachun comforted him with a smile:

"Your Highness, it is normal for His Royal Highness to be playful when he is young. When Dingguo was the same age as His Royal Highness, wasn't he just as playful?"

"They are different..." Zhu Youjian shook his head.

"Although Dingguo is only two years older than Ran'er, he has experienced the suffering of the people after all. And I observed Ran'er. When Ran'er sees the suffering of the people, he often does not experience it, but shows mercy to the superiors."

"This kind of attitude is not a good thing. It often leads to bad things with good intentions..."

"Even so, at least he is good-natured, and at least he is a Shouchengjun." Cao Huachun was so courageous that he even said "Shouchengzhijun".

However, the four people sitting here are not taboo about this, and even if Zhu Youxiao knew about it, at most he would just laugh it off.

After listening to Cao Huachun's comforting words, Zhu Youjian no longer thought about the matter, but asked the three of them:

"How is the matter with the state-owned gold, silver and copper mines going?"

"It looks pretty good so far. The miners in Shanxi are very honest. Some who are unwilling to sell their mines are willing to accept the imperial exploration and pay taxes normally." Cao Huachun said with a smile, but Lu Wenzhao interrupted:

"The north is pretty good, but there are changes in the southern Zhili and Fujian and Zhejiang provinces."

"Huh?" Zhu Youjian frowned slightly, and Lu Wenzhao also said:

"Some people in these three places have been spreading rumors recently, saying that the imperial government's seizure of gold, silver, and copper mines was essentially a forced purchase and sale, and the taxes were set too high."

"Humph!" After hearing Lu Wenzhao's words, Zhu Youjian snorted coldly:

"Buying and selling by force? They deceived the imperial court about their mineral production and evaded taxes and money. They were arrogant and domineering. Now that the imperial court is recycling according to the output they reported, they are pretending to be kind."

"Besides, the fixed tax is too high. We don't even look at the mining taxes in the past dynasties. They know for themselves whether the five-to-one mining tax is high!"

Zhu Youjian had long been disappointed with the powerful gentry, and Lu Wenzhao knew it very well.

"Even so...if these news spread too much, it will also affect the court's credibility in the hearts of the people. Do we need to take action to stop it?"

Lu Wenzhao suggested, and Zhu Youjian lowered his head and continued to deal with the memorial, and while doing so, he gave instructions:

"Find out these people who are spreading rumors, and find out other crimes. It just so happens that the Xiaoxiyang Supervisory Commission needs a large number of immigrants, and I am worried that there are not enough people."

"Find some serious charges, confiscate the property and exile them, confiscate the acres of land, and distribute them to the people for farming."

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao nodded in agreement, obviously knowing what to do. After all, this was not the first time he had done this.

“Has there been any change in the number of drought victims in the north and south?”

Zhu Youjian mentioned what he was most concerned about, and Cao Huachun's words made him feel a little more at ease.

"Although the drought is still continuing in the north, the degree of drought has finally decreased. In addition, many people have moved out of our country in the past two years, so many places can barely be self-sufficient."

"Although the three prefectures of Xining in Hexi are affected by drought, Juyan, Xihai, Liangzhou, Ganzhou, Suzhou and other prefectures can still farm normally with the help of rivers melted by the snow in the Qilian Mountains."

"The servants have reviewed the situation with the Ministry of Household Affairs. As long as the drought does not expand, after the land tax is paid in these five prefectures, the price of food in the three prefectures of Xining can probably be stabilized."

"Even if there is a gap, as long as the imperial court allocates 300,000 taels of silver, we can buy 600,000 stones of grain locally to continue disaster relief."

"As for Shaanxi, although except for Xi'an Prefecture and Fengxiang Prefecture, there is a severe drought, but the millions of immigrants in the Hetao area have food stamps themselves, and the land tax in the Guanzhong Plain accounts for two-fifths of Shaanxi. This year, only Nanyang Prefecture in Henan has been affected by the disaster.

, therefore, Changping warehouse grain can be transferred from Henan to support Guanzhong, which can ensure that the more than three million disaster victims in Guanzhong are worry-free."

"Although Taiyuan Prefecture and Datong Prefecture in Shanxi are suffering from severe drought, the drought in Pingyang Prefecture, Lu'an Prefecture, and the four prefectures in the south has subsided. With the grain from the two prefectures in the south and the four prefectures, the food prices in Taiyuan and Datong can probably be stabilized.

."

"As for Beizhili, although seven of the nine prefectures and two prefectures have suffered from severe drought, the water network in the south is dense, and since the beginning of the year, it has rained a total of six times, and the river water is abundant, so the problem is not big.

Shuntian Prefecture adjusts grain to stabilize Xuanfu and Baoan Prefecture, and the grain price in Yanqing Prefecture is sufficient."

"It's not optimistic in the south..." Cao Huachun took a breath, glanced at Zhu Youjian's relatively controllable expression, and then continued cautiously:

"After the administrative change in Sichuan, it changed from twelve prefectures, six prefectures, four divisions, one sanitation and one institute, to a land of twenty-one prefectures in the seventh year of Tianqi. Now, the land of nine prefectures in eastern Sichuan is once again experiencing severe drought.

The severe drought that hit Sichuan in the seventh year of the Apocalypse spread even more widely."

"The Ministry of Household Affairs has calculated that on paper, more than two million people have been affected. Chengdu and the other 11 prefectures alone may not be able to stabilize food prices. Therefore, there is an urgent need to transfer grain from Guizhou to stabilize food prices and provide work relief.

"

"In the land of fourteen prefectures and six prefectures in Huguang, nine prefectures producing grain in the north are now suffering from disasters. It is impossible to stabilize grain prices with only the five prefectures and six prefectures in southern Huguang."

"In addition, the entire province of Guangdong except Qiongzhou Prefecture is suffering from a severe drought, and the food supplies of Guangxi and Fujian are barely able to stabilize the two drought-stricken prefectures in the province. Therefore, Jiangxi can only choose one of Huguang and Guangdong to provide assistance."

"As for the drought-stricken three prefectures and two prefectures in southern Zhili, they can stabilize food prices on their own, and there is no need for the government to provide disaster relief and adjust food..."

According to Cao Huachun, in general, there is only one problem that is difficult to solve, and that is to whom Jiangxi's grain should be transferred, and how should the major provinces that have not received grain transfer survive the severe drought.

Zhu Youjian said directly without thinking about this question:

"Food from Jiangxi is transferred to Huguang to suppress food prices. If I remember correctly, there should be three to four million people in Guangdong on paper right now, right?"

"In this case, hundreds of thousands more people will be moved to Jiaozhi, Jiugang, Xiaoxiyang and Nanzhou."

"In addition, grain will be transferred from Ryukyu Prefecture and Luzon Prefecture to stabilize grain prices in Guangdong and control them within 500 yuan, and at the same time increase the scale of work-for-relief."

Only Zhu Youjian could make the decision about the relocation. The reason why he wanted to move to Guangdong was not because the imperial court was unable to provide disaster relief to Guangdong, but to prepare for the future large-scale immigration across the country.

If Zhu Youjian remembers correctly, the drought in Guangdong will end starting next year. Although there have been recurrences since then, it has not affected as much as it does in one province now.

On the contrary, Jiangxi, a province with a large population, will encounter a severe drought. Once a large province like Jiangxi, with a paper population of more than 15 million, encounters a severe drought, it can only mobilize the resources of several provinces to stabilize local food prices.

But the problem is that in the second wave of severe drought, the three most populous provinces of South Zhili, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang will all suffer from drought.

If this place, which accounts for three-fifths of the Ming Dynasty's population, encounters a drought, it will be difficult to control it even if all the grain from the country and overseas is mobilized.

The people in the south of the Yangtze River have money, and when they finish buying the food, all the victims in the north will starve to death. This is why in history, in the ninth year of Chongzhen's reign, the wave of uprisings in the north could not be stopped no matter how hard it was stopped.

In Zhu Youjian's vision, once there is a severe drought in Jiangxi, the population will immediately migrate to Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou, Sichuan, Huguang and other places.

As for Nanzhili and Zhejiang, which are close to the sea, they moved to Yingzhou and the old port.

However, to ensure that the migration speed is fast enough, a steam engine ship is necessary.

Although the Ming Dynasty's nine thousand merchant ships and cargo ships can move thousands of people at a time, they can make up to six trips to Yingzhou and four trips from north to south to Luzon in a year.

Although the number of ships can guarantee millions of immigrants every year, if there are steam ships, even if only a version of the steam ship such as the "Archimedes" is developed, the number of migrations can be increased to twelve times.

He traveled to and from Luzon eight times.

The number of immigrants from one million can be increased to 1.5 million immigrants.

Although the technology of the Ming Dynasty was not as good as that of other European countries in the late 19th century, it was better because of its large number of people and ships.

In the 1760s, when there were also no steam engines and ships, European countries still maintained a population migration of more than 300,000 people every year even though they spent a lot of energy fighting wars. The Ming Dynasty could not be worse than them.

They only moved people who were too destitute to survive in Europe, while those who Ming Dynasty wanted to move were victims who were about to starve to death.

In this case, it is not about whether the people can leave, but whether your court has enough money and food for the people to eat, and whether there are enough ships to transport the people overseas.

Migrating people is a loss-making business in the short term.

For example, the Ming Dynasty moved nearly four million people to Xiaoxiyang, Jiugang, Nanzhou and other places. It took nearly four years, nearly 150 million stones of rice and wheat, more than 200,000 cattle, and 500

More than ten thousand mules and horses.

However, it was not until this year that Jiugang officially paid taxes, and according to the budget of the Ministry of Revenue, it would take at least thirteen years for Jiugang to repay the court's investment in it.

This still requires mastering Malacca and the Old Port, which already has tens of millions of acres of cultivated land, as well as the input of millions of taels of gold and silver ore every year. It would be even more difficult to move to other places.

According to statistics from officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs, the investment in Nanzhou is the largest. To relocate a common person, the common person needs to pay taxes honestly for thirty years in order to repay the court's investment in him.

Followed by Hetao, Liaodong, Hexi and other places...

But Zhu Youjian didn't care. After all, although the 150 million stone, rice and wheat were a lot, it could only ensure that the more than 20 million people who suffered from severe drought could eat for six or seven years.
To be continued...